"Well, is she qualified...?"

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By now, you've all heard that Sonia Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx, was nominated as Supreme Court Justice.

You've read the criticism all over the internet: she's been labeled as a racist against white men, that Obama is a racist for picking her, that she's an angry woman, that she's too fat, that her love of Puerto Rican food may bias her at the bench, that she was picked purely on the fact that she is  a woman of color, that she doesn't deserve to have her name pronounced correctly, that she's too feminine, that she's too sharp-tongued.

I think the sexism and racism and absolute ridiculousness found in these criticisms are obvious. Writers from all over the internet have applauded and vehemently defended Sotomayor, responding in WTF-style to some of these accusations.

I give kudos to those who've called out the bullshit and have a personal anecdote to add: I went out with a group of friends the day her nomination was publicized. My friends aren't exactly always up-to-date on current news, so over dinner I announced that Obama had nominated Sotomayor, a Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx for SCJ. I expected my friends to be elated at the fact that our president had chosen someone other than a white man. Instead, the knee-jerk reaction I received was this: a condescending "well, is she qualified...?"

Incredible that my friend's initial reaction wasn't, "wow, what a nice change!" but to immediately doubt as to whether or not she should've been nominated.

Obviously, questioning someone's qualifications by itself isn't a negative thing, especially when it applies to someone in power. But in my heart I know this wouldn't have been the initial reaction from Friend X if Sotomayor had been a white man. 

It is disheartening when a friend who is usually insightful utters something that stinks of racism/sexism. That when a person who represents a marginalized group succeeds, a "liberal" white man immediately searches for her flaws instead of celebrating something that is sadly an exception in our politics instead of the norm. Will there ever be a day in which sexism and racism does not dictate our emotional reaction to a WOC rising in power?